Their pricing for other hair services are also quite reasonable:

- Digital perm from $120 to $160

- My colleague does her hair treatment there for $50 (about shoulder length hair)

Service is not too bad, at least the hairstylists are not pushy & don't try too hard to force services on to customers. The hairstylist did ask Elin to perm her hair but when she said she only wants to get a bob, he let it go.

Anyone who wants to get the hair salon's contact, feel free to tag me -->

Cos I don't do free advertisements.

I just lost my grandmother to the Cancer Devil.

After fighting a losing battle for two & a half months since she was diagnosed with lung cancer, I lost my grandmother. For the past two & a half months, my grandmother has been in & out of Singapore General Hospital (SGH) & hospice care. We didn't know she had cancer until she came down with a stroke & was paralysed on her right side. That happened in Nov 2008. It was only then that we realise she has cancer & that it had spread to her brain. A tumour, which was growing in her brain, was pressing on her nerves, hence resulting in the lost of control of her right limps & bowel movement. The doctor told us she only had six months left then.

She was put through chemotherapy to reduce the size of the brain tumour in order to regain her control of her limps & speech. However the side effects of the treatment took a toil on her already weakened body. She also lost a lot of weight & hair. During the course of the chemotherapy, Granny stayed under hospice care as she needed round the clock attention. She still could not move around on her own then & was on her bed most of the time.

Once she completed 10 sessions of chemotherapy, we got a maid to take care of her so that we could bring her back home, where she spent every minute of the day lying in bed. We wanted to install a television in the bedroom to provide her with some entertainment but she wasn't interested in watching television. Even when we put her in front of the television, her attention would be diverted. As she was bedridden, we had to manually roll her onto her sides to prevent her from getting bed sores. But every time we turned her, it was in fact causing her a lot of pain. That's because she had lost so much weight that she was lying & sitting on her bones & every turn was painful for her.

Just two weeks ago at the start of Feb 2009, water accumulated in her lungs again. She was sent into SGH where she spent the rest of her days. Even the simple motion of drawing a breath seemed exhausting for her. It was hurting to hear her moan with every breath she took. The doctor told us my grandmother had three more months to live. But just a few days later, we were informed that she could leave us anytime. Towards the end, she had to rely on morphine to ease her suffering. The morphine made her drowsy all the time & she could not even open her eyes when we called out to her, but we knew she could hear us as she did the actions that we asked her to do, like opening her mouth. 8 Feb 2008 was the last time I saw her.

On 14 Feb 2009, I received the sms from my mum saying that Granny had just left us. At the moment, I felt relieved for her cos I believe she has been relieved of the pain & suffering & has gone on to somewhere peaceful. I am not a religious person but I believe wherever she is right now is for the better.

The wake was just over & we have collected her ashes & settled her into her new home. What I'm worried about now is how my grandfather is taking this. Some people say when one partner of an old couple leaves, the other one left behind will follow soon after. Though my grandfather is also diagnosed with cancer, but the cancer cells are not affecting his quality of life, except that he is physically weaker than before which is natural cos he is 83 years old this year.

My only regret is that my grandmother cannot see me get married.

I'm really going to miss her, especially her cooking.

I participated in a very meaningful event on Sun, 8 Feb - Charity Drive organised by my colleague Aaron & his group of friends.

They have been doing this charity drive once every year for the past 4 -5 years. They collect donations from friends and use the funds to purchase daily necessities and food items from Giant or Sheng Siong Supermarket. These items will then be packed into goodie bags & distributed to old or handicapped folks who are living on their own in one-room HDB flats. These needy people are under the Hardship / Government Aid scheme & the name lists are obtained from CDC. Aaron told a few of my colleagues & me that they need monetary contributions, as well as manpower resources on the actual day of distribution, so I decided to volunteer my services.

This year's donations totalled to SGD 31,350 which was distributed to 550 individuals. Each goodie bag had about SGD 37 worth of items, which included the following:

- Biscuits

- Herbal tea

- Anlene milk

- Medicated oil

- Plasters

- Toilet paper

- Towels

- Etc

- On top of those items, each of them was presented with a SGD 20 red packet.

We gathered at 10am under Blk 14B in Toa Payoh Lorong 7 to pack the goodie bags before heading to the various blocks to distribute the bags. The packing was done very systematically, with 1 person handling each item & the rest of us lined up to walk pass each of them with plastic bags. The items would be dropped into our plastic bags & we would pass the complete goodie bag to the guys at the end of the line to tie them up.

There was this auntie who saw us queuing up with plastic bags to collect the items, came up to me & asked what was being distributed. I told her these items were to be distributed to old folks & she asked if it is open to everyone. I told her that only certain people were entitled to get the free items & her reply was "then how come you can get it when you are so young?". I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes at her! Gosh, some people just cannot lose out on free giveaways. Anyway, I told her I was only helping to distribute the items to the selected needy people & she just walked away.

It was very heartwarming to see the appreciative faces of the old folks when they receive the gifts from us. Some of them are mute or have physical disabilities, yet they are able to look after themselves. I had the chance to peek into some of their flats & I am very surprised to see that their one-room flats are neater than my bedroom! Oops.. I mean, it is really wonderful to see that they can take good care of themselves & live contented lives.

It has been a really meaningful & enjoyable experience for me. Give us a chance to realise how lucky we are & allows us to reflect on ourselves.

Met up with my relatives from my dad's side for dinner at Tung Lok Seafood Gallery on Saturday (7 Feb). My niece, Reyanna was the star of the evening in her Burberry dress:

The first lesson was on the grip of the club, the correct posture & the quarter swing. The gripping part was easy but not the posture. You have to stand with your butt sticking out while keeping your back straight & have your arms fall towards the ground like an Orang Utan. Opps, I mean, standing with your arms dropping towards the ground with gravity, it is called the natural way. According to the instructor, it will take about 3 months to get used to the posture which is key to getting a good swing, provided you don't break your back by then! Haha.. Seriously, the posture really puts the strain on the lower back.

I think I'll slowly enjoy this sport as I practise more..

Watched The Wedding Game starring Fann Wong & Christopher Lee on Wednesday (4 Feb) with my sisters. The 103-minutes show was about 2 celebrities (i.e. Fann & Chris) creating publicity by being in a fake relationship. Fann needed to increase her fame so that she could be asked to endorse more products & do more advertisements, as she needed to accumulate $5 million within 6 months to save her dad's factory in Malacca. Chris, on the hand, needed new publicity fast so that the public would forget about him being caught recently "doing the do" in a changing room with a model. And of course, as expected, the couple fell in love with each other while being in their fake relationship. And they got married & had a cute little boy & lived happily ever after. The End.

The show was pretty hilarious, but not because of witty jokes, thanks to the actors' silly actions. The way the paparazzi snoop around trying to snap pictures of Fann & Chris & how their managers plan how they should act in front of the media. I liked the part on how Fann's & Chris's managers save the situation when a video clip revealing Fann & Chris arguing about having to fake their relationship in front of everyone was uploaded onto the Internet. They "admitted" to the media that the video clip was a secret rehearsal for the couple's new roles in an upcoming Korean drama.

The show's not too bad, though the plot is rather predictable. I give it 3 stars, which means it's a movie that is only worth watching from Monday to Wednesday, when it's cheaper.